Follow on Twitter please: @rgroveslaw. I am the Director of the Business Law Program at Florida Coastal School of Law, which includes sports law issues. But before becoming an attorney I had a mother and father too. I was fortunate because if they gave me a penny I would owe them change. I became a tax judge and split the baby on occasion but tried most to be fair. After deciding I would rather be inspired to work harder and trust the journey than be uninspired and not work as hard, I went into private practice and became an equity partner of Howard & Howard Attorneys P.C., and counsel to Lewis & Munday, PC. I've represented multi-national corporations in multi-million dollar transactions and high profile entertainers in business and tax matters. Passion continues to be the plasma of progression as now I hope to share how good the profession can be to the new generation of counsel. So now I am a law professor, teaching business entities, securities, international business transactions, and the business side of sports. The passion includes writing. I authored a book, "Innocence in the Red Zone" regarding a client and former Michigan State head football coach Bobby Williams and several other articles regarding business, tax, and entrepreneurship. But my deepest passion - beyond family, is musical. I played piano for Magic Johnson's wedding, opened for Stevie Wonder, had a song recorded by Jerry Butler, and wrote a book about playing piano by ear with a soulful style - all eclipsed by writing songs for one's own wedding.

Richard Sherman And The Economics Of Trash Talk

Until a post-game interview of the NFL Championship Game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, only fantasy fans and NFL insiders knew Richard Sherman was a premier defensive back in the League. Most people don’t know he was making a mere $555,000. But millions of other pundits know of highly publicized Michael Crabtree, a receiver matched up against Sherman in the game. His tree has longer financial branches – about $2.745 million of them. That’s just the Crabtree salary.

Then two events occurred within 5 mintues that brought Sherman an orchard of publicity and future money and crab apples for his nemesis. One: Sherman made an acrobatic play that turned a potential touchdown to Crabtree into an interception. Two: After that play, Sherman said:

“I’m the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you gonna’ get. Don’t you ever talk about me…Don’t you open your mouth about the best or I’m gonna’ shut it for you real quick.” See it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjOkTib5eVQ

Sherman was highly agitated yet concise. He didn’t thank God for the opportunity to play the game, thank his teammates and coaches for putting him in the position to win. He didn’t analyze the play from a technical standpoint. He told the 49ers and Crabtree if you throw the ball my way, I’m going to win, and especially if you choose to throw to a “sorry” receiver who makes over $2 million more than me who’s trash talked me before this game.

It was a brash way of saying what college football’s best defensive back said more diplomatically all season: “This is a No-Fly Zone” said Darqueze Dennard from Michigan State. Dennard will be a 1st round draft pick and won the award for the best DB because of his talent and mentality. He has been savvy on and off the field so coaches and the media say he plays “with a chip on his shoulder”. Coaches love that in a DB because that mentality is required equipment. The mentality of DBs is that they have to block out all criticism because it will inevitably come from being exposed “on an island” with no backup in coverage. Mistakes will be made and TV replays will confirm and reaffirm and overexpose any failures.

The DB’s supreme compliment is only that teams refuse to throw in their direction, choosing instead to pick on a weaker link in the pass defense. What will be lost in the phonetics uproar over Sherman’s trash talk is that rarely did the 49ers throw in Sherman’s direction.

From Sherman’s perspective, it is also rare that DBs get the publicity and endorsement money in the zip code of say Peyton Manning’s $15-18 million annually. And if Sherman had said nothing, he would have gained nothing in endorsements.

Now it is up to Sherman and his economic advisors to ascertain how to cash in on his social media celebrity. He just may figure that out. Sherman was 2nd in his high school class and a Stanford graduate of the School of Communications. Very calm and analytical in the next post-game interview. He apparently already learned something in NFL 101: Two post-game sentences do not create that buzz for most of us. But controversy sells, even when you author it.

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The grown ups like TO? Or perhaps Michael Crabtree who has been a whiney mouthpiece his entire career advocating for his own talent by demanding a higher salary without stats to put him in the same league as those whose salaries he wanted his own to match. Or perhaps Collin Kaepernick who spent the weekend before mocking Cam Newton every chance he got – what a role model for America’s youth.

Or perhaps we should expand to Plax? Michael Vick? Ben Rothlisberger? These grown ups?

What did Sherman say in his outburst? “Don’t talk trash about me. Don’t say you’re the best because when the ball comes my way, I will win it.” A microphone was stuffed in his face ten seconds after he made a highly athletic play that sent his team to the superbowl against a reciever who is 1. a known mouthpiece, 2. was shoving him in the back and facemask all game, and 3. is highly rated, yet wasn’t given the ball all game, and when he was, Sherman, the underdog, won. Sherman kept his rant to the game, he didn’t tell Michael Crabtree not to talk trash or he’d see him outside or he’d give him his, he said don’t talk trash unless you can beat me… The fact that he kept his rant within a strictly football perimeter with all of that adrenaline rushing through him actually proves him more of an adult than most favored players…

Hi Mike. Would you still hope he had a short career if you were the coach and this guy helps you keep your job? If you were the owner that invested millions in him would you turn your own cheek because you are writing the check? I suspect you may not invite him over for dinner, but it’s not personal, just business you might say.

As opposed to Crabtree and Kaepernick who are so softspoken? Or maybe Ray Lewis? DeShaun Jackson? Tyrell Owens? Big Ben?

Is there a team you do like? Because I don’t know many that don’t have players who get the spotlight for much worse things than talk confined to the game when a mic is shoved in their face 10 sec after they make a superbowl sealing play…

For those of you whos first exposure to Sherman was the 15 second interview just moments after one of the biggest plays of his life, you have no option but to view it completely out of the context that is Richard Sherman. Keep in mind that he never cursed (something that has been known to happen in post-game interviews), and he simply stated he was the best CB in the game. The fact that they only threw his direction twice the WHOLE game suggests that. And then several minutes later he was his calm self giving another interview at the pundits desk. Dont short yourself on 15 seconds of exposure to Richard Sherman.

Those of us who have followed him know that Sherman does not talk trash until spoken to first. Its been well documented that he doesnt talk to Larry Fitzgerald. Larry doesnt talk to Richard, Richard respects Larry. Crabtree set himself up.

He was hyped up after making a huge play. In later interviews, he was thoughtful and charming. I must confess it is refreshing when someone speaks their mind, even when their comments are not “politically correct.”